Week in Review: Black Friday, Mary Cheney & more!

Nov. 29, 2013

Dickens Carolers, with At Your Door Productions, from left, John Phillips, Jennifer Nicholson, Diane Stebbe, and Robert Chandler serenade shoppers at Castleton Square Mall on Thursday evening, Thanksgiving night, during its earliest-ever Black Friday hours. Many stores at the mall opened at 8pm this year, some at midnight, which was the time the mall opened in 2012. / Kelly Wilkinson/The Star

The now-former Indianapolis police officer insisted even at his sentencing on nine felonies, and despite a 0.19 percent blood alcohol test, that he was not drunk when he plowed into a group of motorcyclists on Aug. 6, 2010, killing Eric Wells, 30. "I was driving that car. I do accept responsibility," Bisard said with tears in his eyes and his voice cracking, according to The Star's John Tuohy. "But I am not going to accept responsibility for being intoxicated ... because I wasn't." With three years suspended and time off for good behavior, Bisard could be released 6 1/2 years into his 16-year sentence.

2. Black Friday on Thanksgiving: More bust than boom?

With only 26 days between Turkey Day and Christmas this year, compared with 32 last year, retailers have been feeling even more pressure than before to get you to buy -- which means great deals on TVs, video game systems and more! But while The Star’s Jill Phillips and Whitney Smith tweeted photos and videos of plenty of crowds and long lines in some places, other stores didn’t appear to see the same frenzy as in 2012, despite opening even earlier on Thanksgiving Day. Did the cold scare some away? Or was the holiday just more important to many than their wish lists?

3. Mary Cheney to lead fundraiser against same-sex marriage ban.

The Republican and lesbian daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney will headline the event in Indianapolis on Dec. 11 for Freedom Indiana, the bipartisan coalition fighting the HJR-6 constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. One amendment supporter, Micah Clark of the American Family Association of Indiana, criticized Cheney's role as a celebrity outsider inserting herself into Indiana politics. But Cheney wrote in the invitation that the amendment also touches also on family.Politico thought that Mary took a veiled jab at her estranged sister with her statement "Freedom means freedom for everyone," an echo of a 2009 remark by Liz Cheney, who has now taken a vocal stand against gay marriage while contesting the Wyoming primary against incumbent GOP Sen. Mike Enzi.

4. Fares have soared and flights have fallen since Indy-based ATA's demise.

Travel agents still talk wistfully of ATA, Indianapolis' homegrown airline that brought low fares and nonstop service to Florida, Las Vegas and other favored destinations. More than any other factor, it was ATA's demise as a passenger carrier in 2006 — driven into bankruptcy from which it never recovered before closing two years later — that explains why Indianapolis saw some of the steepest cuts in passenger service and largest jumps in airfares of any U.S. city over the past eight years, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

Dwayne Sawyer, the first Republican statewide office holder who is African American, has been on the job for less than four months. In a resignation letter, Sawyer wrote, "Due to family and personal concerns, I have come to the conclusion that it will be in the best interests of my family and the people of Indiana whom I have been honored to serve that I resign from the office of Indiana auditor of state." Pence added in a prepared statement: "Hoosiers can be assured that Mr. Sawyer's resignation had nothing to do with his fiduciary responsibilities for the state or his execution of his duties as Auditor." Pence said he hopes to appoint a replacement by the time Sawyer leaves office Dec. 15 to fulfill the rest of the auditor’s term through 2014.

7. Colts' 40-11 loss to Cardinals continues lackluster trend.

Indianapolis' defeat Sunday in Arizona (dropping them to 7-4) wasn't Super Bowl caliber of football play, was it? The loss underscores what a void Reggie Wayne's season-ending injury created, says The Star's Bob Kravitz. "The truth is, the Colts have played three decent quarters out of the past 16 — one great one against Houston and two against Tennessee. And that's it." The Colts are bound to win the AFC South, says Kravitz, but the postseason is now a question mark. We’ll see how our boys in blue play back home at Lucas Oil Stadium this Sunday, with kickoff at 1 p.m. against the Tennessee Titans (5-6). Watch on WISH-TV (Channel 8).

8. "Thanksgivukkah" poses a conundrum for many.

Some Jews were having tons of fun creating mashups of menorahs and turkeys, or turning the birds into dreidels. But the rare convergence of the secular and religious holidays of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah was a source of angst for many who celebrate both -- though some in the Indianapolis area were finding creative ways to merge the two, often with meals. Ann Sloan of Hasten Hebrew Academy of Indianapolis was among those who rose to the occasions. “I was just angry. ... Here it is, it’s stealing our thunder for Thanksgiving. And then I said, ‘Wait a minute, this is going to happen only once in our lifetime.’ ”

9. Purdue's drum claim is a world-sized exaggeration?

OK, it's not Watergate. But I'm still impressed with the lengthsthat Hayleigh Colombo recounts going to to verify what the Big Bass Drum boldly proclaims on its side: that it's the "World's Largest Drum"! She even consulted Purdue's Steve Wereley, the mechanical engineering professor who calculated the size of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill in 2010. Wereley calculated the drum's size from photos, and microfilm found in the Lafayette Journal & Courier offices confirmed: The drum is "seven feet three inches in diameter and three feet nine inches wide." That's smaller than the size of the University of Texas and University of Missouri drums, she writes. Sorry, Boilermakers.

10. “Medora” about much more than high school basketball.

The 82-minute documentary, which recently premiered at Indiana University campus, centers on a downtrodden high school basketball team in Medora, Ind. (population: 700). Co-directors Davy Rothbart and Andrew Cohn spent eight months during the 2010-11 school year shooting more than 600 hours of video, going behind the scenes with a team that finished 0-22 the previous season and had a first-year coach who doubled as a police officer in Bedford. But the beauty of "Medora" isn't necessarily the on-court saga (will they win just one game?) as much as the journey of Medora from a bustling town to one of shuttered windows and vacant storefronts and factories, says The Star’s Kyle Neddenriep. As resident Ron Craig says in the movie: "The town will die when the school leaves." See it in Columbus, Ind. on Dec. 6.